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Trojan Leap and Pyrrhic Dance in Euripides' Andromache 1129–41

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

E. K. Borthwick
E. K. Borthwick
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
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Extract

Neoptolemus, after defensive action with his shield against the missiles of the Delphians, decides to break away from the altar and try to escape—making in so doing ‘the well-known Trojan leap’, as Euripides says. This phrase plainly implies knowledge of a notorious incident of such a sort, associated, one might presume, with Neoptolemus himself. The schol, ad loc. however refers to a leap made by Achilles from the invasion ship on to Trojan soil, when a fountain of water shot up at the place he landed with his prodigious jump. This incident may be alluded to in El. 439, where the invasion fleet is said to have brought In later literature the legend is confirmed by Lycophron Alex. 245 (with schol.) and Antimachus fr. 59, where The fact that Antimachus uses a simile which resembles of the Delphians in the Andromache might also be thought to connect the two passages, but the image is a common one and Antimachus seems to borrow more directly from Achilles' leap on Hector in Il. xxii 138–9

But although this explanation of ‘the Trojan leap’ is plausible enough, and Norwood in his edition observes ‘obviously Neoptolemus leaping down from the altar suggests Achilles leaping down from the ship’, there is also evidence for a Trojan leap of Neoptolemus himself, and if this story (like the leap to shore of Achilles) came from a familiar Epic Cycle account of the war at Troy, it would be reasonable to suppose that Euripides had in mind an incident involving Neoptolemus rather than his father.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 87 , November 1967 , pp. 18 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1967

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References

1 Tzetzes in his note on Lyc. 245 refers to the Andromache passage in connection with Achilles' leap.

2 Of the editors of the play only Hermann seems to have expressed doubts about the traditional explanation. Wecklein observed that a reading πατρός for ποδοῑν in 1139 would clarify the reference.

3 This note is given also in the Tractatus Urbinas p. 59 Koster, , Nicetas, de metris p. 111Google Scholar Koster, Eust. 1697.3.

4 Neoptolemus, who achieved great prominence in the Cycle, enters the wooden horse first in Quintus Smyrnaeus xii 314, Tryphiodorus 152, Tzetzes, Posthomerica 643.Google Scholar In Q.S. xiii 49 it appears that Odysseus leaves first. The references to this subject in a wide range of authors have been set out most recently by Ervin, M., A relief pithos from Mykonos (Arch. Delt. xviii 2 [1963] 54 ff.)Google Scholar, who identifies the two main armed figures standing by the horse, in this early representation of the scene on a magnificent seventh-century pithos, as Neoptolemus and Odysseus.

5 v 20.

6 A story which recalls the fate of Protesilaus who preceded Achilles in his fatal leap on to Trojan soil.

7 Paus, iii 26.9 (referring to the Little Iliad), Hyg. Fab. 113, Q.S. vi 391 ff., Eust. 1697.

8 Athen. 610c shows that the identification of the Greek chieftains in the horse was a matter for speculation.

9 See Knox, B. W., ‘The Serpent and the Flame’, AJP lxxi (1950) 393 ff.Google Scholar

10 On which see most recently Hill's, D. E. article in CR n.s. xiii (1963) 2–4.Google Scholar

11 Schol, on 52a:

12 Schol, on 52b:

13 Cook, (Zeus i 483)Google Scholar quotes a letter from Jane Harrison suggesting that Neoptolemus' Trojan leap ‘may stand in some relation to the game of Troy’. I do not propose to follow up this speculation, but observe that an equation of the lusus Troiae and Pyrrhic dance is made by Servius on Aen. v 602, quoting Suetonius, lusus ipse, quem vulgo pyrrhicam appellant, Troia vocatur, and implied also by Plotius Sacerdos (vi 497.16 Keil) who quotes Aen. v 585ciebant simulacra pugnae in deriving the pyrrhic foota pyrricha, lusus genere.

14 Cf. Archil. fr. 190 B., Luc. Salt. 9, Hsch. s.v. πνρριχίζειν, schol. Townl. Il. xvi 617, schol. Pind.P. ii 127, schol. B Heph. p. 299 Consb., Choerob. in Heph. p. 213 Consb., Diomed. G.L. i 475.15 Keil (cf. ib. v 322.11, vii 334.8).

15 On the importance of the shield in the Pyrrhic dance, see Downes, , CR xviii (1904) 101 ff.Google Scholar, and my article ‘Notes on the Plutarch De Muska and the Cheiron of Pherecrates’ (to appear shortly in Hermes).

16 So Athena at the moment of birth (Luc. D. Deor. 8); and cf. of Cnossian Corybants (Nonn. D. iii 63), with whom armed dancing is conventionally associated.

17 Cf. the description of an Assyrian dance in Hld. Aeth. iv 17.1 and the recommendation of dancing as a form of physical exercise in Gal. san. tuend. vi 155 K Agathias, (Hist. ii 1)Google Scholar uses περιδινεῑσθαι of the armed Pyrrhic dance.

18 Keil records emendations of prominentem to promovens, or incumbens to incutiens, but both words seem sound in this context, prominere being equivalent to the use of προέχειν and προ (ἐκ-) τείνειν of the shield in Aristophanes and Euripides, while genibus incumbens recalls the ὄκλασις referred to in the Greek accounts of armed dancing. Bis breviter in Diomede—an attempt presumably to ‘explain’ the double-short of the pyrrhic foot with reference to some feature of Neoptolemus' steps or gestures—is, however, ill connected with either the previous or subsequent words; so perhaps an additional participle, e.g. vibrans, has fallen out, of which prominentem clipeum is the object. Diomede later uses vibrationis (corrupted to bibrationis) and vibraverant of weapons (pp. 477.9, 478.11 respectively) in his ingenious explanations of the origins of metrical units; and cf. Amm. Marc. 24.6.10 … Romani vibrantesque clipeos, velut pedis anapaesti praecinentibus modulis, lenius procedebant; Claud. VI Cons. Hon. 627–8 (of a Pyrrhic-style celebration) clipeis … in altum vibratis.

19 Cf. Plut. Mor. 997c.

20 The well-known representation on an acropolis bas-relief (Emmanuel, op. cit. infra, fig. 540 = Séchan, , La danse grecque antique, pl. iv, 2Google Scholar = Prudhommeau, , La danse grecque antique pl. 560Google Scholar—cf. pls. 203, 270, 287, 411, 448) shows the Pyrrhicists holding their shields as described in a late scholium on Ar. Nub. 989

21 See Emmanuel, M., The Antique Greek Dance (trans. Beauley, ) pp. 228–9, figs. 5357–6.Google Scholar The figures here shown, however, are not relevant to the dance, the former being Pentheus defending himself against the maenads on a R. F. Lucanian kalpis (Munich no. 3267: Philippart, , ‘Iconographie des Bacchantes d'Eur.’, Rev. belge de phil. et d'hist., ix [1930] no. 137, pl. viia)Google Scholar, the latter coming from a gigantomachy on a fourth-century amphora from Melos (Louvre S 1677: Furtwängler-Reichhold, , Gr. Vasenm. ii 193, pl. 96.7Google Scholar, Cook, , Zeus iii, 1, pl. 7Google Scholar, Vian, Répertoire des Gigantomachies no. 393, ARV 2 1344, no. 1 and 1691, the Suessula Painter). I am indebtedto Dr. A. M. Snodgrass for identifying the latter figure.

22 Ruvo, Jatta 239: Reinach, , Répertoire i 321Google Scholar = Baumeister, , Denkm. iiGoogle Scholar fig. 1215 = Roscher, , Lex. Myth. iii, 175Google Scholar fig. 5. Cf. Cook, , Zeus ii p. 171Google Scholar, Séchan, , Études sur la trag. grecque, pp. 253–5.Google Scholar

23 It is interesting that Plutarch makes Alcibiades meet his death in like manner (Alc. 39). Other descriptions of the gesture include App. B.C. ii 119 (cf. Mithr. 86), Poll, v 18 (cf. Xen. Cyn. vi 17), Caes. B.C. i 75, Liv. xxv 16, Tac. H. v 22, Petron. Sat. 63, 80, Apul. M. xi 3.24, Cat.116.7(?). Herter, Hans, ‘Den Arm im Gewande’ (Misc. di Stud. Alessand. in memoria di A. Rostagni, pp. 322–37)Google Scholar, develops the theme in literature and art in connexion with Heracles and the Nemean lion (cf. Theoc. xxv 253 ff.)

24 Or creatures with serpentine associations, such as the sphinx (Sept. 558), offspring of Echidna (Hes. Th. 326, Apollod, iii 5.8, etc.) and sometimes depicted with a snake's tail (cf. A.P. xiv 63, schol. Eur. Ph. 1760). In P. V. 583 there may be, as Paley observes, an allusion to the story of Andromeda and the sea-serpent (usually called κῆτος, and the whale is in Opp. Hal. v 333, but in art the monste is shown rather as a sea-dragon). Fr. 186 Mette, appears to refer to the Nemean lion, also born of Echidna (Hes. Th. 327) and perhaps imagined as snake-tailed, and it is possible that Aeschylus could even refer to it as χωρίτης οράκων in fr. 185 of the same play (Leon Satyrikos)—see Mette, , Der verlorene Aischylos 152–4.Google Scholar So too when snake-tailed Cerberus is called δάκετον in Callim. fr. 515 one feels the choice of word is to some extent influenced or coloured by the adj. Ἐχιδναῑον, referring once more to its snaky parent. In Sophocles δάκος appears to occur only once, in fr. 210.52—oddly enough of wounds inflicted by Neoptolemus, possibly on Eurypylus. I am reminded of Aeschylus' use (Eum. 181) of ὄφις as an arrow, while Sept. 399 sustains the earlier image of Tydeus as a hissing serpent (381).

25 And perhaps also βόα, if the word is to be interpreted as referring to the snake of this name (see Plin. N.H. viii 14.36 cited in Murray's app.crit.).

26 Also 121, 146: the only use of a creature other than a venomous snake seems to be 818 (of the salamander).

27 Cf. id.s.v. ἀκοντιάς, Ar. Av. 1069, and schol. Ar.Plut. 884 (and adnot. in Dübner p. 590) on the sycophantic

28 When Quint. Smyrn. (xii 314) calls the wooden horse κητώεις, his image suggests the belly of a seamonster (see n. 24, above)—the πολυχανδέα νηδύν of Opp. Hal. v 331. Quintus himself uses πολυχάνδης of the horse a few lines before (307). Knox, loc. cit., refers to the serpent imagery found in Latin poets in connexion with the horse, which includes not only the fairly obvious latebrae (cf. Verg. Aen. ii 38, 55 with Stat. Theb. ii 413), but other words and phrases naturally used of snakes, like serpere equum (Prop. iii 13.64).

29 As contemporary taste is notably different in its attitude to puns from that of the Attic tragedians, I might refer to three verbal associations in this passage which, if accidental, form a curious coincidence: the λεώς becomes a λέων, the δάκος is Ἀργεῑον (ἀργῆς or ἀργᾱς is a kind of serpent, and Harpocr. 32.16—cf. Ach. trag. fr. 1—says that the Argives especially and is ἀσπιδήστροφος (ἀσπίς is attested of the snake in Hdt. iv 191—the of Nic. Ther. 158—and is the subject of a humorous γρῑφος in Ar. Vesp. 23. Fraenkel himself, loc. cit., refers to this passage as containing a characteristic Aeschylean griphos.) Incidentally Eum. 181 πτηνὸν ἀργηστὴν ὄφιν, referred to in p. 22, n. 24, appears also to allude to ἀργῆς.

30 As was noticed by Haupt, Moriz (Opuscula iii 540).Google Scholar

31 A theme continually stressed in the literary tradition from Homer onwards—cf. Od. xi 492, 540. Soph. Ph. 940, 1284, 1310 ff., and Neoptolemus' own savage sarcasm to Priam in Verg. Aen. ii 549 degeneremque Neoptolemum narrare memento.